Bakkt Taps Former IBM and Cisco Exec Tom Noonan to Chair Its Board

Bakkt has tapped a former Cisco and IBM executive to lead its board of directors, according to an announcement Friday.

Chairing Bakkt's board will be Tom Noonan, described as "a cyber expert" and the founder of Internet Security Systems, JouleX and Endgame.

He will be accompanied by Akshay Naheta, managing partner at Softbank; Sean Collins, managing partner at Goldfinch Partners; ICE CEO and chairman Jeff Sprecher; and Kelly Loeffler, Bakkt's head. Noonan is already a member of ICE's own board of directors.

Once approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bakkt's physically settled bitcoin futures contracts will be listed on ICE Futures US and ICE Clear US, "Where global market participants already transact," Loeffler wrote in a blog post Friday.

She described Bakkt's pending products as "The first physical delivery price discovery contracts for bitcoin to the U.S., where price formation will occur in federally regulated, transparent markets."

"Similarly, just as digital asset custody is at the core of Bakkt's infrastructure development, secure custody is at the heart of our physical delivery bitcoin futures contracts."

In Friday's post, Loeffler said Bakkt has "Worked closely" with the CFTC in recent months.

While CFTC staff have been reviewing Bakkt's proposal since last year, it is unclear where the process stands.

The CFTC is expected to publish Bakkt's proposal for a 30-day public review period, after which the commissioners will vote to approve or disapprove.

Bakkt is unlikely to launch before May. "We continue to work with regulators to address the emerging global landscape for digital assets," Loeffler wrote.